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Pixiv is a Japanese-language community for artists. The site is popular enough with English-language fans that several tutorials have been posted online with instructions on how to join and use the site. [1]

Although Pixiv's main user base is Japanse, by 2011 the community had acquired many international members. Signing in is possible in Japanese, Chinese, English, French, Thai, Korean, and Russian. Terms of Use, Guidelines, Privacy Policy, Enquiry, and Help pages are available in English. Pixiv has an official English-language twitter account[2] and also maintains an English-language version of its Pixiv Encyclopedia.[3]

The Pixiv Encyclopedia, also called Pixpedia, is a user-edited site that catalogues the many tags used on Pixiv, explains their meanings, and introduces representative works for every tag. The site describes itself as follows:

pixpedia is Encyclopedia service for tags of pixiv. Explanations, related works, and related tags can be written in the article. Enjoy yourself and write attractive articles for those who is interested in pixiv.[4]

Pixiv is an important hub for Japanese fan artists. For instance, many Doujinshi circles use their Pixiv pages as a "homepage" for the circle. As a company, Pixiv is involved in many fan-related events. It has an extremely popular booth at every Comiket.

Pixiv is a popular source of fanart posted on Tumblr. As this fanart is often not attributed, or is sometimes even altered without perimission, it has created considerable controversy. See Online Fanarts Protection.

Fail Fandom Anon discussed proper etiquette for Pixiv: The use of English tags is considered rude, feedback is usually PMed to the artist, bookmarks indicate popularity, and reproducing art is extremely taboo. [5]